The Mighty Blackfoot Nation

The Blackfoot Nation is one of the most respected First Nations people in North America. They have a long history of great people and traditions, let’s get into who they are and learn more about them here.

Where Did The Blackfoot Tribe Live

The Blackfoot People had a lot of land for their people before the arrival of settlers. The land that they occupied was pretty vast, covering the area from what is present day Edmonton along the Saskatchewan River, all the way down to the Yellowstone River down in Montana.

Also the Nation expanded into half of the province of Saskatchewan. Their empire was HUGE and covered a lot of area.

If you were to drive that distance today it would take about 13 hours in a gasoline vehicle. You can image how long it would take on horses or walking that distance.

It was said that they originated from Eastern Canada by the Great Lakes. They had to keep battling for resources with other tribes and kept moving West to where they are now.

Where Do They Live Now

Today the Blackfoot people live in Southern Alberta and Northern Montana. The area of the tribes make up what is known as the Blackfoot Confederacy.

The Indigenous name for Blackfoot Confederacy is – Siksikaitsitapi and they refer to themselves as Niitsitapi which translates into the meaning “Real People”.

The Nations that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy are the Kanai, Siksika, and Piikani in Canada, as well as the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana.

If you have every drove around the Calgary Area, Lethbridge Area, and Down into Northern Montana, then you were in present day Blackfoot Area.

What is The Blackfoot Tribe Known For

The Blackfoot People were very well known as being Brave and Strong people. They painted their Tipis with beautiful art and were known for creating strong allies.

They were bison hunters, trout fisherman, hunted deer, and made good use of what is known as the Buffalo Jumps.

They had lodges of about 10 to 30 Tipi’s per community which ranged between 80-250 people. This ensured there was enough warriors in a tribe community to protect against any attacks.

The Blackfoot People are also very well known today for their creation of the Chicken Dance. The Chicken Dance is a very popular dance in Modern Day First Nations Powwows and Celebrations.

How they Got The Name Blackfoot or Blackfeet

It was said that when they created their moccasins that many of the people would paint the bottom of their moccasins Black and so other tribes would recognize them as being the Blackfeet people.

Another story was told that the Siksika People would walk through ashes from fires in the prairies which leave their moccasins Black on the bottom as well.

What Happened to Them in The Past

The Blackfoot people had many enemies. These included:

• Crow
• Cheyenne
• Sioux
• Shoshone
• Flathead
• Kalispel
• Kootenai
• Nez Perce

The biggest enemy though was the Iron Confederacy or the Nehiyaw Pwat meaning the Plains Cree.

On January 23, 1870, the US army attacked one of the Blackfoot Nations tribe with over 300 of them who were sleeping.

The sneak attack resulted in close to 200 people dead, including woman, children and elders.

The dead were thrown into fires which is now know as the Marias Massacre.

This was around the time that Small Pox disease started to severely effect the Native American Population around North America.

From here the White People started the Buffalo Wars. They knew that the First Peoples relied heavily on the animal so they decided to start killing off the population of the Bison.

This helped with controlling the First Nations peoples and start forcing them into Treaties and into Reservations.

Who Was The Leader of The Blackfoot Tribe

One of the greatest well known leader of the Blackfoot Tribe was Chief Crowfoot. He was known as Manistokos, which meant “father of his people”.

He was really instrumental in the negotiation process of Treaty 7 for his People with Canada. He talked a lot about Peace and Reason.

Sitting Bull and Crowfoot

When the Lakota People were battling the US Calvary which is now known as the famous “Battle of Little Bighorn”. The famous Chief Sitting Bull came North into Blackfoot Territory.

Crowfoot saw them as refugees and he got to spend some time with Chief Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull was so impressed with Crowfoot that he adopted him as one of his sons.

Northwest Rebellion

During the Northwest Rebellion which was battles between the Canadian Militia and the Metis People with First Nations Allies (Cree and Assiniboine).

The Metis and Allies really hoped that they could gain the alliance of the Crowfoot. Crowfoot wanted to remove himself from the conflict as long as he could, but his adopted son “Chief Poundmaker” was part of the battle.

Crowfoot ended up not joining in on the battle and because he had high respect from the warriors in his tribe, they followed his instruction in not taking part in the battles.

The Queen recoginized his loyalty, but Crowfoot’s true loyalty was with his people and knew that going into battle would result in many loss of his people.

He did let Cree refugee’s into his camps though even though they had been great enemies for many generations.

Treaty 7

After the Rebellion lead into Treaty Negotiations.

Here are the words from Chief Crowfoot:

“I want to hold you back because I am at the edge of a bank. My life is at its end. I hold you back because your life henceforth will be very different from what it has been.

Buffalo makes your body strong.

What you will eat from this money will have your people buried all over these hills.

You will be tied down, you will not wander the plains; the whites will take over your land and fill it.

You won’t have your own free will; the whites will lead you by a halter. That is why I say don’t sign. But my life is old, so sign if you want to. Go ahead and make the treaty.”

Chief Crowfoot

He would also go on to say these words on October 21st.

“While I speak, be kind and patient.

I have to speak for my people, who are numerous, and who rely upon me to follow that course which in the future will tend to their good. The plains are large and wide.

We are the children of the plains, it is our home, and the buffalo has been our food always.

I hope you look upon the Blackfeet, Bloods and Sarcees as your children now, and that you will be indulgent and charitable to them.

They all expect me to speak now for them, and I trust the Great Spirit will put into their breasts to be a good people – into the minds of the men, women and children, and their future generations.

“The advice given me and my people has proved to be very good if the Police had not come to the country, where would we all be now?

Bad men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed, of us would have been left today.

The Police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the frosts of winter.

I wish them all good, and trust that all our hearts will increase in goodness from this time forward. I am satisfied. I will sign the treaty.”

Chief Crowfoot

Chief Crowfoot died April 25th, 1890 of Tuberculosis at Blackfoot Crossing.

What Are Their Traditions

The Blackfoot people were very spiritual people. They had many ceremonies which still live on today. They relied on the Buffalo which many tools and lodges were created.

They went on vision quests, carried sacred bundles, had the Sweatlodge ceremony, Sun Dance Ceremony, Chicken Dance, and always lived in a way that the Creator came first.

Early writers would admit they were “the most happy and independent people of the Rocky Mountains. They thought of them as brave people, & far superior to any tribes, and in all their actions they far excel the other Natives.”

They were also Society People.

Men were separated into Societies. Some of the more well known societies for the men were:

• Bulls
• Horns
• Crazy-Dogs
• Little Birds
• Braves
• Kit Foxes

Each Society carried their own songs, dances, customs and ceremonial rites. To be apart of these societies it would depend on your behaviour, how you carried yourself, your deeds, and accomplishments.

Some of these Societies still are active today and you still have to have these special qualities to be apart of these groups.

Blackfoot Language

The language that the Blackfoot people speak is also called Siksika. It is an Algonquian language spoken by over 8,000 people that has four dialects and three of those dialects are spoken in Alberta Canada.

There are a few apps now that you can download onto your mobile device to help a person learn the language. They are:

• Ninastako Cultural Centre (iOS, Android) 
• Blackfoot (iOS, Android) 
• Blackfeet Language (iOS)

How to Say Hello in Blackfoot – Oki

Cree and Blackfoot Battles

The Crees and Blackfoot had many battles. One of the notable battles was the battle of Belly River.

During this time small pox was making its way throughout the Nations of North America and every tribe was being affected by this disease.

The Blackfoot people were becoming weaker from the disease and the Cree wanted to take advantage of this situation.

Chief Big Bear and Little Pine gathered their warriors to raid the Blackfoot People.

The Cree had an advance party go out and scout up ahead. When they did, they found a group of Peigans and decided to attack instead of go back and inform the main group of Cree Warriors.

Soon the Blackfoot, Blood, and other Peigan’s were notified of the attack and joined in on the battle and they devastated the Cree warriors with up to 300 Cree deaths in present day Lethbridge Area.

A year after this battle, the Cree and Blackfoot people made peace. Chief Crowfoot was instrumental in creating Peace and took in Cree Chief Poundmaker as an adopted Son later.

The Chicken Dance

There is a legend of the Chicken Dance coming from the Blackfoot People.

The dance is a very popular dance in modern day Powwows and it’s one of the main highlights of people travelling to Powwows to watch the dancers.

The legend tells of a man who went on a hunt for his family. When going on his hunt he stumbled upon some Prairie chickens dancing and shaking their bodies, puffing their chests, and moving their feathers.

The man saw this and pulled out his bow and arrow, aimed at the Prairie chicken and shot it.

He brought the chicken back to his Lodge to prepare it and cook it for his family.

That night when he went to bed, he had a dream and in his dream the spirit of that Prairie Chicken came to him. It was not in the form of the Prairie Chicken, but in the form of a human spirit.

The Spirit told him that he shot and killed him during a certain Ceremony that it was doing. He told the man that they were in the middle of their mating dance ceremony.

Killing him was not the right move at the time when they were doing this type of ceremony. The man felt very bad for doing this. The spirit then told the man that he would have to finish off this ceremony or bad things will come upon him.

The Spirit told the man he would teach him the songs and dance and that he would have to go to his people and teach them what he learned and carry on the ceremony.

He did this and this gave birth to what we now know as the Chicken Dance.

Powwows and Tourism

Now you can visit the Blackfoot people by attending one of their ceremonies such as the Native American Powwow.

They host many great celebrations where they invite all tribes and people from around the world into their reservation and host you with song and dance.

You can go to a Powwow in Kanai Blood Reservation, Siksika Reservation, and Piikani Reservation.

They also have some great museums to visit, and several Heritage Sites such as Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park.

If you got value from this post and learned something about the Great Blackfoot People, please leave a comment and share this on Facebook 🙂